Jessica Jones, the new Netflix series based on the popular Marvel comic-book character, has been heralded by many critics for going above and beyond genre tropes to tackle complex themes of rape and addiction.

Jessica Jones: shattering exploration of rape, addiction and control

Read more

At the Television Critics Association (TCA) winter press tour in Pasadena on Sunday, showrunner Melissa Rosenberg thanked the press for the “smart thinkpieces on the issues we’ve been tackling”, but stressed that the show had not set out to be about said issues.

Krysten Ritter leads Jessica Jones as the titular New York detective with superpowers, who meets her match in villain Kilgrave (David Tennant). He uses mind control to commit horrific acts, his specialty being violence against women.

As Lili Loofbourow wrote in a critical essay for the Guardian: “Jessica Jones is one of the most complex treatments of agency in the wake of victimhood that the small screen has seen yet seen.”

TV Guide’s Sadie Gennis wrote: “Without showing a single rape onscreen, showrunner Melissa Rosenberg captures the atrocity of Kilgrave’s actions with a single word: ‘Smile.’ Each time Kilgrave orders Jessica to smile, the threat feels chillingly familiar. It’s something every woman has experienced in her life walking down the street.”

On Sunday, Rosenberg said: “What was funny is that we never walked into the writing room going: ‘We’re now going to take on rape and abuse and feminism.’ We walked in wanting to tell the story for this character. By being true to the character, it was true to the issues – and it ended up working out.”

Rachael Taylor, who plays Patricia “Trish” Walker, a radio talkshow host who is Jones’s best friend, praised Rosenberg for never making the show “moralizing or didactic” in its treatment of dark subject material.

Before the panel, Netflix announced that Jessica Jones has been renewed for a second season of 13 episodes. No premiere date was revealed.